[nandm]

Originally Posted by Puddy

Hello everyone, I have been in recovery for 6.5 years and had to change my sobriety date because of an addiction to prescription pain medication. I wondered if there was an "official word" by AA concerning narcotic pain medication prescribed by a physician. I was able to locate a reprint of a Grapevine article that Bill W. published in 1945 on the internet.

AA's official stand is there is no official stand. The BB clearly states that there are times when people need outside help and it makes no discouragement of seeking that help. It does not specify only help that does not include medications.

Even if you have no drug addiction in your history, your body and mind will probably thoroughly enjoy being intoxicated again. And pain meds are the #1 cause of relapse back into active alcoholism or addiction. At least according to a friend of mine who has been a CDP and a treatment center counselor for 17 years.

Thank you for your opinion. Clearly though it is the opinion of both yourself and your friend. Remember opinions are many and quite varied. Just because one person says it is the Gospel truth does not make it so. Personally, my experience is not what yours was or is with medications. I have no way to know what the number one cause of relapse is except listening to people who come back to the rooms of AA after a relapse and 90% or more always state that the start of their relapse was when they stopped going to meetings not when they started taking pain meds. But that is just my experience and opinion just as yours is yours.

I'm glad to be truly sober again and my only bit of advice for someone in recovery thinking of taking prescription pain medication is - if it's something like cancer pain or something really major, ok, as long as the Dr knows you are in recovery, and you have someone hold the bottle who knows what the shot is with you. Anything less than major, severe, chronic pain, trust me it's better to go through a few days or weeks or even months of mild to moderate pain than to suffer the pain of narcotic addiction. ALSO - Prescription-strength 800 mg Ibuprofen (IBU-8) works as good as Vicodin at pain relief and will not get you high. Now that you know this, if you opt for the Vicodin now, you've chosen the Vicodin and you just busted through the starting gate in one hell of a crappy ride...

I am glad you made it back. I do understand your fear and concern regarding pain medications for yourself as obviously they were a serious problem for you. But please remember that is your experience not everyones. Mine is I have had pain medications prescribed off and on throughout my over 7 years sobriety. I even was put on a morphine drip at 6 months of sobriety and due to the fear you speak of demanded to be taken off it. That caused a delay in my healing as I could not work with physical therapy because I had no pain control. It took a doctor explaining the principle of managing the pain before it gets out of hand otherwise it is an uphilll battle to get the pain back under control. I have been a nurse for 20 years and it took that experience for me to understand that concept. As soon as I was able I reduced the medication to ibuprofen. But for the past two years I have been taking medication as needed for disc pain due to a car accident. I do not consider myself any less sober because of it. I take the medication as prescribed. Try non medication treatments first, and then take the pain med when I absolutely have to. Please remember some people can not take Ibuprofen on a regular basis. I developed drug induced hepatitis in recovery because I tried to manage my back pain with just muscle relaxers and ibuprofen. It damaged my liver. So today I have to be extremely careful about when and how much tylenol or ibuprofen I take. I encourage anyone who is in recovery to be sure to discuss with their doctor taking any over the counter medication especially ibuprofen due to the liver implications. By the way, this is just my experience but I was not and am not able to take vicodin as the side effect for me is suicidal ideations. So that does not leave a lot of pain med options for me. I also make sure that I am honest with my doctor, she knows I am a recovering alcoholic, she has me come in to get my refills where we discuss options for pain relief, I get a 30 day supply at a time and most of the time that lasts me 2 - 4 months. I realize not everyone will deal with medications the way I do. Drugs were never an issue for me, I was afraid of them and their side effects. Plus they interferred with my drinking. Personally, I would rather not take any today but I realize that taking them and working the 12 steps is what keeps my life manageable. I do try to remember not everyone is like me, some people can not handle any medications put in front of them. For those people I would suggest having someone handle those meds for you and trying every other alternative.

I also have never found any "high" associated with any of these meds. By the way some people claim to get "high" from anti-depressants. Not something I have ever experienced. Anti-depressants are what balance the chemicals in my brain out to a normal level.